Page 41 of Two Hit Wonder

"We're not suggesting suspension again," Mrs. Webb continued. "We just want to understand if there's something going on at home that might be affecting her. Any changes in the family situation?"

Iona pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and index finger. "Her father and I divorced some time ago," she heard herself say, which was true but also happened several years before Mo started channeling teenage rebellion. "Perhaps she's having a delayed reaction. I'll talk to her." Best not to mention the marriage that came after that one.

Mrs. Webb made sympathetic noises and suggested counseling and said they just wanted what was best for Mo, really they did. Iona made all the right responses and hung up feeling like she'd failed some test she hadn't known she was taking.

What was she missing?

When she turned back to the room, Maeve was watching her.

"Everything alright?" Maeve asked.

"Fine. Mo's school. Nothing serious." Iona pocketed her phone with what she hoped was casual ease. "Where were we?"

They didn't ask more questions, which she appreciated. Cam was too busy checking her own phone anyway, pulling a face before she shoved it back in her pocket with suspicious haste.

"Late night last night?" Ellie asked Cam, deceptively casual.

"What? No. I was home by eleven. Reading. A book. In my flat. Alone."

"You don't read books. I didn’t know you could actually read," Maeve said.

"I'm expanding my horizons."

"What book?" asked Iona.

Cam's mouth opened and closed. "A… thriller. About a detective. Very thrilling. Lots of detecting."

"What was the detective's name?"

"Detective… McDetective. From the… Look, can we rehearse, please? Some of us are taking this seriously."

Ellie caught Iona's eye across the room with a look that said very clearly: should we be worried about this? Iona gave a tiny shrug in return. Cam had always been chaos incarnate, but this particular flavor of evasion was new. Usually she told them everything, whether they wanted to hear it or not, in graphic detail, with hand gestures and sound effects. The fact that she was hiding something was almost more alarming than whatever the something might be.

Which was just what she needed. More people acting mysteriously. She picked up her guitar again.

Whatever was going on with Cam, it would come out eventually. Things always did.

THEY RAN THROUGH two more songs before Iona checked her watch and felt her heart sink. "I've got to go. Mo's school let out twenty minutes ago and she's meant to be picked up today, not getting the bus."

"Right," Cam said. "Off you go then, mother hen."

"I'm not a mother hen."

"You absolutely are. It's endearing. Go tend to your chick before she pecks someone."

Iona gathered her things, guitar back in its case, bag slung over her shoulder. The others were already packing up too, the session naturally winding down. She dropped a kiss on Cam’s cheek, then Ellie’s, then she hesitated at the door.

Maeve was wiping down her microphone, a ritual Iona remembered from the old days. Some things hadn't changed. The care she took with equipment, the methodical way she wrapped the cable, the slight frown of concentration.

"Same time tomorrow?" Iona said, which sounded stupid.

"Unless you've got a better offer."

"My schedule is depressingly free."

Maeve almost smiled again. Two almost-smiles in one day. Iona was going to need to lie down.

She should just go. She should walk out the door and get in her car and pick up her daughter and not make this complicated. That would be the sensible thing. The adult thing. The thing a woman with two divorces under her belt should know how to do by now.